Obamacare sign-ups surpass 370,000 in Kentucky

President Barack Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden, gestures as he speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2014, about the Affordable Care Act. The deadline to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act passed at midnight Monday night. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)(Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP)

Propelled by a flurry of last-minute sign-ups, more than 370,000 Kentuckians are now enrolled in Obamacare, pleasing state officials who had pushed hard to get Kentuckians covered by private insurance or Medicaid before Tuesday's midnight enrollment deadline.

More than 1 out of every 12 Kentuckians — or 8.6 percent of the state's population — now has health insurance through kynect, the state's health-exchange set up to offer Obamacare coverage.

"We are thrilled with the level of interest and enrollment that we've seen," kynect's executive director, Carrie Banahan, said in a statement.

Those Kentuckians join roughly 7.1 million Americans who President Obama announced Tuesday have enrolled in his signature healthcare initiative, formally known as the Affordable Care Act.

"We've taken a big step forward," Obama said in a White House news conference, adding that that figure doesn't include the more than 3 million Americans under age 26 who could stay on their parents insurance — or the "millions more on Medicaid expansion" and children's programs.

"That doesn't mean all the problems in health care" have been solved, he said, citing steadily rising premiums.

President Obama said Thursday that 7.1 million Americans have signed up for insurance under his new health care law, proving that the new system is "here to stay" and denouncing Republican attempts to repeal it.

The large sign-up numbers have done nothing to assuage Obamacare opponents, who say the healthcare law has increased premiums and forced people to change their insurance and doctors.

"We're not getting the numbers we need to make a good judgment on whether Obamacare has worked," U.S. Dan Coats, R-Ind., told Fox News Tuesday. "The numbers we don't have really will tell the story. What we need to know is how much premiums have increased and how many people have lost their doctor."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that "all across the country our constituents are having an unpleasant interaction with Obamacare. Whether they can sign up for a policy or not, they are discovering, of course, higher premiums, a higher deductible."

Some ACA opponents have also worried about paying for Medicaid expansion, which is currently borne 100 percent by the federal government but will gradually decline to 90 percent in 2020.

But those misgivings haven't appeared to deter Kentuckians from enrolling — 12,000 signed up for coverage on Monday alone, part of 21,000 enrollees in the last three days of the sign-up period.

Those who failed to to sign up for insurance by the deadline could be fined up to 1 percent of their income on next year's taxes.

Of the 370,829 enrolled Kentuckians, half are younger than 35. And 77,027 — 21 percent — purchased private insurance, with the rest signed up for Medicaid, state officials said.

More than 85,000 enrollees were eligible for a subsidy but have not purchased a plan.

Officials said those who signed up but who weren't able to complete enrollment will be able to do so April 4 through April 11. The kynect.ky.gov web site saw few of the last-day glitches that stymied sign-ups Monday on the federal exchange.

The goal of the Affordable Care Act was to help cover 48 million uninsured Americans, including 640,000 in Kentucky. About three-quarters of those who enrolled through the kynect exchange previously had no health insurance, Kentucky officials have said.

The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the Affordable Care Act is expected to provide coverage to an additional 25 million people by 2016. At that point, 91 percent of American citizens and legal residents would have coverage.

The next enrollment period for private insurance begins Nov. 15. People who buy this insurance through the exchange may be eligible for subsidies to help pay for premiums, depending on their income.

Kentucky health leaders say they plan to keep working on education and outreach even now that the first enrollment deadline has passed.

Meantime, a number of questions remain, such as how doctors and other health providers will handle the influx of new patients, how the ACA will translate into better health outcomes and the effects of higher costs that some are paying because of Obamacare requirements that all plans offer a minimum level of coverage.

Reach Chris Kenning at (502) 582-4697. Follow him at ckenning_cj. Laura Ungar can be reached at (502) 582-7190. Follow her on Twitter at @lauraungarcj. USA Today and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

By the numbers

• 370,829 Kentuckians are enrolled in new health coverage

• 293,802 have qualified for Medicaid coverage

• 77,027 have purchased private insurance

• 50 percent of all kynect enrollees are younger than 35

• 33 percent of all private health plan enrollees are under age 35

• 85,167 are eligible for a subsidy to purchase a qualified health plan, though some have yet to select a plan

• 762,148 calls have been handled by the kynect health-exchange contact center